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The waning of Angela Merkel’s political powers has been evident ever since her mishandling of the migrant crisis in 2015 caused a political back-fire that resounded across the European continent.

At home, the failure to control the arrival of nearly a million migrants in the space of a year splintered German domestic politics in a way that, until recently, many thought impossible, leaving Mrs Merkel at the helm of a listless, divided government.

Then the same mistake sapped her authority in Europe, as the anti-immigrant right in Poland, Hungary and Italy faced down her demands for a show of solidarity: migrant resettlement quotas that were imposed by a majority vote were flatly refused.